2013/4 season ticket prices and entrance fees announced

[royalgull]

£21 for Division 4 football is disgraceful.

[Modgull]

Some of the comments on this thread are at best ill-informed or at worst downright disillusional.

Football clubs have to compete financially as well as on the field.

Supporters want the best players so the club has to pay the going rate. The majority of the club's income comes from gates so there is a simple equation - if you want success without bankrupting the club ticket prices must reflect that.

The position in a club like TUFC with a small fan base means that ticket prices are even more sensitive to aspiration.

The recent TV deals at the top of the game are also having an inflationary impact all the way down the structure.

So what does the club do? Reduce ticket prices and guarantee relegation next season (if we survive this season) or an inability to fight for promotion back to League 2 (if we do get relegated)!

They are, as they will always be, between a rock and a hard place on this one. But sure as eggs are eggs if everyone on this thread who says they will not renew their season ticket next year keeps their word then non-league football will be here to stay at Plainmoor (whether it is next year or the year after)!

PS I shall be renewing mine!

[MidDevon]

Budleigh - you have missed the point I am trying to make, I am not denying the board a free cup of tea at half time, but what I am saying is they are clearly not as in touch with fans as they might wish to think. Also it certainly does not cost "tens, or in some cases hundreds, of thousands of pounds" to become a director at TUFC. Not sure why you would think it does?

Modgull. Plianmoor is rarely 1/3rd full. The club are not offerring good value for money. I could not give a hoot if Gillingham do charge £23 on Saturday that's a different set of facilities in a different part of the country, in Torbay £21 for 4th division football is as royalgull says is disgracefull

[Dave]

No one is suggesting radical price reducions, and of course any price reduction would be a massive gamble, but sometimes as I have already said less can lead to more.

Just going focus on the popside, if the club was relegated and took that into account and reduced the match day price but even £1 they could potentialy attract a small number of extra fans, so 10 x £17 = £170, 5 extra fans coming because of the reduction 15 x £16=£240.

With the season tickets reduce the price by 10% to take into account relegation, say 500 x the current price of £295= £147,500, possible extra 250 at the reduced price of £265 so 750 x £265 = 198,750.

Of course those figures are pie in the sky as said any reduction would be a gamble, just however an idea of what could be potentialy achieved from a reduction, that said I certainly would not reduce prices if we stay up.

[AustrianAndyGull]

To be honest i think it's just semantics here. Reducing or raising the price of a ticket by a quid or two quid isn't really going to make much impact on attendances or bringing new fans into the club IMO. If it's £21 to go in the bench from £20 or ifnthe club reduces it to £19 then it's not enough to entice the fans back in. Also it is still too expensive for the level of football. It is the club who cannot lose, we go down and they keep prices the same or even raise them as they'll say we need the extra cash because crowds will be down and if we stay up the club can do exactly the same. It's a no lose. If we are to go down, it needs to be £14 or £15 max on the pop and £16 / £17 max to go and sit. It won't ever BE that i know but that is what i believe is acceptable and may entice a few fans in. Otherwise it's you regulars who will just be fleeced again as a reward for being loyal and will have to stump up over the odds ticket prices for next season. If the club are to keep prices the same or higher then they really need to be offering some really good incentives also , much better than the usual mundane stuff. Will they? No.

[hector]

i won't be renewing mine either way league 2 or conference i've had season tickets for quite a few years now, even the 2 years in the conference,miss 3 games this season because of other commitments,would of missed many more if it wasn't for having the season ticket.

I feel this way too. I have been a season ticket holder, on and off for around 20 years but every year since Bateson was bought out. I struggle to get to mid-week games so it was not becoming economic to buy one any more anyway due to the number of games I have to miss. Like you, I went to games when sometimes I didn't feel like it because I had my ticket but I will not be renewing it for another unnecessary spell of non-league football and I will pick and choose my games more, I suspect, as well because I have other, more important things in my life that deserve my time and money than to be wasting nearly £20 on than to watch Torquay play - and probably lose - to Hyde.

[MidDevon]

£17 next season which if the club get relegated means , IMO, you are being ripped off

This is cheapest standing prices at the conference clubs this season

£18 Alfreton
£16 Hereford, Lincoln, Stockport
£15 Braintree, Cambridge, Dartford, Grimsby, Luton, Mansfield, Woking
£14 Telford, Barrow, Forest Green, Gateshead, Hyde, Kidderminster, Macclesfield, Wrexham
£13 Newport
£12 Nuneaton, Tamworth
£10 Ebbsfleet, Southport

What is most frustrating is that this information is easily available, so the board have decided to make Plainmoor prices higher than virtually anywhere else will be next sseason if they go down.

Of course all conference clubs could choose to increase prices...but let's be realistic no board would be so stupid!

As I said on the other thread the club will ultimately get the crowds it derserves

[ferrarilover]

Hahaha, this thread is hilarious. Talk about toys out of the pram.

Hands up, any of you who were taking this attitude last year when we were doing well?

As to the price rise, £1 in £20 is 5% which is barely above the rate of inflation. With CPI inflation at 2.8% (Feb 2013), the club is effectively putting up the most expensive prices by 2.2%. Hardly going to break the bank. The increase, over 24 home games/season is, of course, £24. If you can't find 46p a week over 12 months, you can't afford to go to football in the first place.

Freezing the season ticket prices is a nice touch, since it means you're saving 2.8% over last year (CPI again). Recent study of the cost of attending football in England was carried out and discussed on here. I think we came in at second cheapest in the country. Some people are just never happy.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

To me Matt it's about what i reasonably expect to pay for the product that is on offer and as it stands it is not acceptable imo ( regardless of financial stats ) to charge people £17 to stand or £21 to sit to watch a football match in league 2 never mind the conference is too excessive. If i go to Blockbuster video where a rental is currently £3.99 and they put it up to £4.99 or maybe a tad more then i won't rent as many films, if i was a smoker and the price of cigarettes kept creeping up then i would cut back and not buy as many cigarettes and it's the same with Torquay. If the club keeps on doing this then at some point people are going to pick and choose games more and yes, they will go to more games and pay the prices if we are successful but we need to forget about that and concentrate on the actual fans that come through the doors week in week out regardless as it is they who supply the steady income stream. I know what you are saying Matt about the club in comparison to other clubs prices and inflation we are cheap but it is still too much IMO.

If we are to get regular fans back when we are a crap team then we need to reduce the prices to a realistic amount and the club need to find other ways of recouping the money lost instead of just 'financially abusing' the very people who keep them in existence.

I'm a knob, i'll pay it and moan but others won't. Others will just stop going and that only harms our club.

[friendlygas]

Our season tickets came out early this year as well. In fact we are now PAST the date where season tickets retained this seasons prices as it was the end of March and at the time they came out we too didn't have a clue what division we would be in. I see our neighbours are expecting a reduction in their season ticket prices if they get relegated this season but I will be surprised if they do anything other than hold the current price. I am really hoping you have avoided relegation by the time you play us as don't want anything on the game so we can go out and enjoy it. I think I speak for most gasheads when I say that there is no way we want to be involved in relegating one of our local teams and one that provides us with a great day out or weekend out.

[Modgull]

Our season tickets came out early this year as well. In fact we are now PAST the date where season tickets retained this seasons prices as it was the end of March and at the time they came out we too didn't have a clue what division we would be in. I see our neighbours are expecting a reduction in their season ticket prices if they get relegated this season but I will be surprised if they do anything other than hold the current price. I am really hoping you have avoided relegation by the time you play us as don't want anything on the game so we can go out and enjoy it. I think I speak for most gasheads when I say that there is no way we want to be involved in relegating one of our local teams and one that provides us with a great day out or weekend out.

Thanks for the consideration Friendlygas but I fully expect us to have to beat you to stay up. Given your recent form I fear you will be the team to consign us to non-league football.

Returning to the thread of ticket prices I would remind everyone who advocates slashing prices to get bigger crowds of what happened when we went down last time. The season ticket price was reduced by about a third. It led to increased gates but a massive loss for the Club - I seem to recall around £700K - and I recall warning everyone of the unsustainability of the economics right through that season.

I cannot for the life of me see how the argument of slashing prices can work. As Matt has indicated the increase is not a massive one and if it gives the manager a bigger playing budget isn't that what we have urging on the Board FFS!

The issue here is the perennial one in football. People don't mind paying for winning football but not for a losing team. If only we could guarantee the former we will have cracked a real conundrum.

[budleigh]

Also it certainly does not cost "tens, or in some cases hundreds, of thousands of pounds" to become a director at TUFC. Not sure why you would think it does?

I'm not going to get into the argument as to how much one would need, or indeed first needed, to put into the pot to become a director, but trust me, a cheque for some tens of thousands would be a minimum requirement.

what I am saying is they are clearly not as in touch with fans as they might wish to think.

In the main the directors are in touch with the fans; they are fans. Anyone who sits near a certain director in Bristows Bench would be in no doubt that he goes through the same emotions, with the same concerns, as the next supporter.
Indeed, has there ever been a time in the club's history when the directors where as accessible to the rest of the fan base as now?

[ferrarilover]

Everyone always thinks everything is too much money but that is how much things cost. L2 football is about £20/pop. A bottle of Cola shouldn't be £1.20, but it is. A VW Golf shouldn't be £22,000, but it is. That the club have frozen most prices and have made the smallest possible practical increase in others represents better value than this year (assuming we don't go down) and I don't remember anyone complaining about the prices last year when we were doing well.

This thread is yet another opportunity for some to baselessly bash the Board.

As for the continued calls for the club to make STs £50 and get 8000 people through the gates, are you the same people pilloring Colin Lee when he did something very similar and cost the club a King's ransom a couple of years ago?

Matt.

[bixieupnorth]

maybe a good time for the club to promote the ill fated membership scheme again, two failed attempts to get it off the ground so far, maybe now people not thinking of going along so often if the worst happens, or not renewing season tickets cos the footballs so dull may want to contribute on a little and often basis, and still get a discount when they do decide to shuffle along to plainmoor??

[bixieupnorth]

http://www.torquayfans.com/forum/viewto ... f=3&t=4253

link to one of the several threads on this very worthy subject, sign up tomor night when your drunk!!